THE ART OF PAINTING, AND THE LIVES OF THE PAINTERS: CONTAINING A COMPLEAT TREATISE OF PAINTING, DESIGNING, AND THE USE OF PRINTS, WITH REFLECTIONS ON THE WORKS OF THE MOST CELEBRATED PAINTERS, AND OF THE SEVERAL SCHOOLS OF EUROPE, AS WELL ANCIENT AS MODER

Book Description

London: Printed for J. Nutt..., 1706.. [16],480,[8]pp. Octavo. Handsomely bound in modern three quarter calf and marbled boards, gilt labels. Frontispiece engraved by Nutting after a drawing by Coypel. A few minor corner creases, very shallow, faint receding tide-mark along extreme lower edges of first few leaves, otherwise a very good, crisp copy. First edition in English, the translation attributed to John Savage. De Piles utilized his position as art buyer for Louis XIV as a cover for political intrigues, and he wrote this work in prison after he was arrested for carrying a false passport in 1692 in the Hague. It was first published in 1699, after he assumed a position with the Académie de Peinture at de Sculpture. In his long dedication to Robert Child, Savage discusses having consulted with several of the experts Dryden drew upon in the course of his translation of Fresnoy, and his indebtedness to those sources for the appended "Essay Towards an English School of Painters," pp. 398-480. ESTC T10568.

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